Chapter 13 Key Issue #2

Urban Structure
• Three models of urban structure
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Concentric zone model
Sector model
Multiple nuclei model
Geographic applications
• Use of the models outside North America
▫ European cities
▫ Less developed countries
Three Models of Urban Structure
• Sociologists, economists, and
geographers have developed three
models to help explain where
different types of people tend to live
in an urban area: the concentric
zone, sector, and multiple nuclei
models.
• The three models describing the
internal social structure of cities
were all developed in Chicago, a
city on a prairie.
• Except for Lake Michigan to the
east, few physical features have
interrupted the region’s growth.
• The three models were later applied
to cities elsewhere in the United
States and in other countries.
Concentric Zone Model
Fig. 13-5: In the concentric zone model, a city grows in a series of rings surrounding
the CBD.
Sector Model
Fig. 13-6: In the sector model, a city grows in a series of wedges or corridors
extending out from the CBD.
Multiple Nuclei Model
Fig. 13-7: The multiple nuclei model views a city as a collection of individual centers,
around which different people and activities cluster.
Geographic Applications of the Models
• The three models help us understand
where people with different social
characteristics tend to live within an
urban area.
• Effective use of the models depends
on the availability of data at the scale
of individual neighborhoods.
• Urban areas in the United States are
divided into census tracts, which
contain approximately 5,000
residents and correspond where
possible to neighborhood boundaries.
• Every decade, the U.S. Bureau of the
Census publishes data summarizing
the characteristics of the residents
living in each tract.
Use of the Models outside North
America
• American urban areas differ from those
elsewhere in the world.
• Social groups in other countries may not
have the same reasons for selecting
particular neighborhoods.
• As in the United States, wealthier people
in European cities cluster along a sector
extending out from the CBD.
• In Paris, for example, the rich moved to
the southwestern hills to be near the
royal palace.
• The preference was reinforced in the
nineteenth century during the Industrial
Revolution
• Factories were built to the south, east,
and north along river valleys, but
relatively few were built on the
southwestern hills.
European Cities
• Similar high-class sectors developed in other European cities, typically on
higher elevation and near royal palaces.
• However, in contrast to most U.S. cities, wealthy Europeans still live in the
inner rings of the high-class sector, not just in the suburbs.
• A central location provides proximity to the region’s best shops, restaurants,
cafes, and cultural facilities.
• By living in high-density, centrally located townhouses and apartments,
wealthy people in Europe do not have large private yards and must go to public
parks for open space.
• To meet the desire for large tracts of privately owned land, some wealthy
Europeans purchase abandoned farm buildings in clustered rural settlements
for use as second homes on weekends and holidays.
• In the past, poorer people also lived in the center of European cities.
• Social segregation was vertical: Richer people lived on the first or second floors,
while poorer people occupied the dark, dank basements, or they climbed many
flights of stairs to reach the attics.
• During the Industrial Revolution, housing for poorer people was constructed in
sectors near the factories.
Less Developed Countries
• In LDCs, as in Europe, the poor are
accommodated in the suburbs,
whereas the rich live near the center
of cities, as well as in a sector
extending from the center.
• The similarity between European and
LDC cities is not a coincidence.
• Most cities in less developed
countries have passed through three
stages of development—before
European colonization, during the
European Colonial period, and since
independence.
Pre-Colonial Cities
• Before the Europeans
established colonies, few cities
existed in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America, and most
people lived in rural
settlements.
• Cities were also built in South
and East Asia, especially
India, China, and Japan.
• Cities were often laid out
surrounding a religious core,
such as a mosque in Muslim
regions.
• Government buildings and the
homes of wealthy families
surrounded the mosque and
bazaar.
Pre-Colonial Cities
• Families with less wealth and
lower status located farther
from the core, and recent
migrants to the city lived on
the edge.
• Commercial activities were
arranged in a concentric and
hierarchical pattern: Higherstatus businesses directly
related to religious practices
were located closest to the
mosque. In the next ring, were
secular businesses.
• Food products were sold in the
next ring, then came
blacksmiths, basket makers,
and potters.
• A quarter would be reserved
for Jews, a second for
Christians, and a third for
foreigners
Colonial Cities
• Developed when Europeans gained control of
Africa, Asia, and Latin America
▫ Provide colonial services such as administration,
military command, and international trade, as
well as housing for the Europeans who settled in
the colony
• Compared to existing cities, European districts
had wider streets and public squares, larger
houses surrounded by gardens and much lower
density
Latin American City Model
Fig. 13-15: In many Latin American cities, the wealthy live in the inner city and in a sector
extending along a commercial spine.
Squatter Settlements
• The LDCs are unable to house the rapidly growing
number of poor.
• A large percentage of poor immigrants to urban
areas in LDCs live in squatter settlements.
• Squatter settlements have few services, because
neither the city nor the residents can afford them.
• Electricity service may be stolen by running a wire
from the nearest power line.
• In the absence of bus service or available private
cars, a resident may have to walk two hours to reach
a place of employment.
• At first, squatters do little more than camp on the
land or sleep in the street.
• Families then erect primitive shelters with
scavenged (materials).
• The percentage of people living in squatter
settlements, slums, and other illegal housing ranges
from 33 percent in São Paulo, Brazil, to 85 percent
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, according to a U.N. study.